A period of financial turmoil was brought to an end last week when New England Sports Ventures completed their protracted takeover of the club, but the new era began in ignominious fashion with a defeat by Everton in the Merseyside derby.

For Matteo there is a sense of deja vu having been a member of the Leeds side which was relegated from the top flight back in 2004.

Robbie Fowler, who played alongside Matteo at both clubs, said following the derby defeat he felt the current Liverpool side is worse than the one that went down with Leeds and it is an assessment Matteo agrees with.

"I think he's probably right," Matteo told Press Association Sport. "I think when we were at Leeds we did have better players than Liverpool have and we went down.

"I'm just hoping it doesn't happen to my old club because it would be unthinkable for Liverpool to go down.

"At the time it was unthinkable for Leeds to go down because we'd been doing so well a few years previous.

"I'm just hoping that it doesn't happen to Liverpool."

Asked if relegation was a genuine possibility for the Reds, he added: "Where they are at the moment, it looks like it is.

"They're not doing too well, they're in the bottom three and it could happen.

"You fall into these ruts as a player and it's difficult to get out of them. As a team, no matter how hard you train or try, sometimes the harder you try (the more) results don't go for you; you get bad decisions against you.

"So I'm just hoping Liverpool can drag themselves out of it.

"With the team we had at Leeds we should have had more than enough to stay up but we didn't.

"Liverpool need to start getting points on the board quick and then in January bring a few players in and hopefully strengthen."